


A Chocolate for Your Thoughts, My Warrior?

by MoF10



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Arranged Marriage, F/M, Morning Cuddles, Stream of Consciousness, Valentiones Cuddles, but they love each other very much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29543370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoF10/pseuds/MoF10
Summary: The Warrior and Zenos spend a while cuddling on the dawn of Valentiones.
Relationships: Zenos yae Galvus/Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Kudos: 8
Collections: Bookclub Valentione's Fic Exchange 2021





	A Chocolate for Your Thoughts, My Warrior?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pocketchocobo (laveIIans)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laveIIans/gifts).



> Prompt: WoL is a very useful person to have on your side, particularly politically, but some agreements carry more weight than others. Long story short, WoL enters an arranged marriage with Person B and the pair end up spending their first Valentiones Day together. Are they in love? Barely tolerating each other? Do they have a lover/lovers that they think of? 
> 
> Hey Akemi! Thanks for the prompt. I decided on Zenos because it seemed the most interesting to think about in terms of an arranged marriage. It's a more introspective work and a little bit of a character study. I hope you enjoy it; it was terrifically fun to write.
> 
> Thanks to the lovely Asch for the beta.

Those who knew the Warrior of Light knew her penchant for making decisions that may seem unsound on the surface, but upon further careful consideration and weighing of all factors, only became more so.

Of course, the Warrior had her reasons for doing what she did (usually boredom) and somehow had the preternatural ability to ensure that everything turned out for ‘the best’, or at least the Warrior’s skewed perception of what ‘the best’ was. (It usually involved a handsome man or two.) 

But even so, everyone but her (and a small strange so called ‘fan group’) considered accepting an arranged marriage to Zenos yae Galvus one of the least sound decisions she’d ever made.

Politically speaking, her acceptance was absolutely fantastic. The direct effect of peace between nations that for so long had known nothing but the opposite was a major boon. Even the closest friends of the Warrior, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, had to breathe a sigh of relief when she accepted the proposal before promptly using that extra emotional budget to worry deeply for her sanity and safety. (Though not necessarily in that order.) 

However, anyone who knew both her and the crown prince of Garlemald had to wonder of the deep personal cost to the Warrior. For Halone’s sake, most would say, he’d tried to kill her multiple times and almost succeeded in just as many! What reason could she have to bind herself to her greatest enemy, even if it was just symbolically?

To anyone who asked, the Warrior would only smile and laugh silently, like it was all an inside joke that only she knew. What reason  _ didn’t _ she have to marry Zenos? For one, he was  _ extremely _ hot. 

Okay, that wasn’t the sole reason, but it was the only one that was easy to articulate, and articulation was decidedly not among the Warrior’s many skills. How was she supposed to put into words the feeling that only a single mortal being even came close to truly understanding her? Understanding a life soaked in blood, to make sense of how her murder was any different from his?

“You’re thinking too hard again, my Warrior.” Zenos’s voice rattled against her throat as they laid together on the dawn of valentiones, limbs tangled and bodies warm against each other even through their smallclothes. “Have the Scions put in a request for work on what is supposed to be a special day?”

“No, no. Nothing like that.” She replied, relishing in the satisfied hum being ghosted against her jugular. There was something incredibly intimate about allowing him access to her weakest point, literally trusting him with her life. “Just... thinking about us.” 

“Mm.” He hummed again, his broad shoulders and arms cocooning her from behind in an action likely no one else would ever experience. It was possessive, yes, but for one who had been forced to forge her own path for so long fiercely independent of anyone, giving it up every once in a while was a nice sort of catharsis. (Though let it be known that if anybody other than Zenos attempted it, said anybody would find themselves in Halone’s halls faster than was necessary.) 

“Gods.” The silk blanket covering them both was a blessing as she leaned into his touch, loving the familiar feeling of his hair tickling her skin. “Sometimes you make me forget what others fear about you.”

She didn’t need to look to know that his eyes were still closed in the warm bliss of the soft morning. “And you do not,” He purred again, driving the smallest of gasps out of her as his lips moved against the nape of her neck. “Fear those aspects?”

The heady high of letting  _ Zenos _ in so close allowed her to breathe a contented sigh. “Of course not.” From anyone else, those words would have resulted in the swift end of the utterer. “Any and all of them are the same reasons your people fear me.”

His arms tightened around her as if to try and bring her impossibly closer despite the perfect fit their bodies had already created. He half snarled half sighed into her, happy to claim her as his and allow her the same pleasure. The Warrior recalled the times where their positions were reversed with a happy hum, when Zenos allowed the Warrior closer than anyone should or could ever be with the implicit trust that she would not end him as he did not end her.

It was a love unlike any other. 

“So, does Garlemald do anything on valentiones, or shall I have to pressure your father to enact some sort of holiday?” The Warrior spoke, turning herself around in his arms to feel his furnace-like warmth on her front, with the additional benefit of allowing her to greedily stare at his face. The action would have been quite difficult for anyone that did not have her surpassing strength. 

“Not until recently,” His eyelids cracked open, exposing those blue irises that seemed to sparkle in the morning light. “Until a certain Eorzean woman wormed her way into the royal family, there was nothing of the sort.”

His huff of laughter then was something that was blessedly becoming more common over the moon they had spent in marriage. It was the sort of laugh that he didn’t employ during their many spars and battles. Though rare it was to hear a sound borne of simple amusement and not battlelust come from Zenos, they and those like it had reached her ears countless times over the past moon. To think that the Warrior’s presence was bringing out a side to the prince that many assumed he didn’t have pleased her to no end. “There is no holiday yet, but your customs have our people clamouring for chocolates and generally being unproductive.”

“Well, then they shall have to forgive us for spending the day in bed, won’t they?” She teased, taking her turn to grip his body with the intent to keep it forever. “I’m sure your father is happier to not have to deal with our joint boredom during yet another political meeting.”

If only others had a chance to see the Prince outside of the battlefield and the forced political wrangling that seemed to be part of his birthright. Mayhap more would understand, would  _ see _ what drove her to love. 

On the other hand, the exclusivity of it all was a shot of pride that very few things gave her these days, knowing that it was for her and  _ only _ her that this beast was cowed. It sent shivers down her spine whenever she thought about it.

“My Warrior, is there not some pleasure in annoying my dear father?” He smiled that smile she’d seen when he was about to throw some gods-awful attack in her direction, knowing full well that she’d dodge it perfectly. 

“There is, but there is far more right here.” She didn’t miss a beat, not even having to look up while she responded. “And I doubt that the leaders of your high houses would take kindly to me being unable to restrain myself from showing some affection. It  _ is  _ valentiones after all.”

“Oh? Do tell.” Hunger flashed in Zenos’s eyes. “And I am to understand that this occasion warrants...  _ affection?” _

The Warrior felt a shared heat beginning to rise between both of them as she allowed her hands to roam downwards, tracing muscle and scars that she had become  _ very _ well acquainted with over the past moon. 

“Yes,” She felt his hands begin to get the idea of the holiday and mirror her own.  _ “Exactly.” _

Needless to say, there wasn’t much conversation after that. 

For most, choosing a lifetime with Zenos was one of the worst decisions that could ever be foisted onto them. They would rightfully assume that it would be fraught with danger, chaining oneself to the side of what most would consider a monster. 

Almost all didn’t understand the Warrior’s easy smiles at the mention of him or the soft gazes directed at him that she reserved for only those she truly cared deeply about. What could possibly be the reason that she’d allowed him into her heart?

For her, it was obvious. After all, to be peerless was to be lonely. The Warrior of Light was a title that served to isolate her as much as it did to inspire the rest. But after years of battling above others, she’d found her match in Zenos as he did her. The peerless found a peer, the Light found her Darkness. They were two sides of the same bloodied coin, and the ease of which they clicked together was without compare. 

The Warrior was an idea to most, someone to aspire to be but not to understand.

To Zenos, the Warrior simply  _ was.  _ And there was nothing more that she could ever ask for.


End file.
